Zero Tolerance
by AEquinox92
Summary: The Avengers, the founding members of the X-Men, Charles Xavier and Magneto are all dead, killed protecting the world from a murderous and unstoppable mutant. And now, the American government has issued a mandate: no more mutants. And the only people that are capable of saving them are the X-Men, a broken family lost and unsure of their ability to help anybody.


**Prologue**

A dark, and stormy night. Cliched but true. A bus quietly makes its way into the Manhattan terminal. The dozen or so passengers all tired from a lengthy trip, they are ready to disembark and rest as soon as possible.

But, of course, the Manhattan bus terminal is a major checkpoint for D.O.M.A.I.N. The **D**epartment **O**f **M**utant **A**pprehension and **In**carceration. But the citizens of the United States of America - human and mutant alike - called their field agents "The Purifiers".

Three heavily armored men, armed with an array of weapons, stepped onto the bus.

"Attention, everyone," the lead officer announced to the passengers, "do not be alarmed. This is a standard search for any and all genetic fugitives. If you do not possess the mutant gene, you will not be harmed. If you do, you will be arrested. If you attempt to protect the mutants, you will also be arrested. Do not attempt to resist or we will be forced to put you down."

The second officer pulled out a computer pad-like mechanism and started scanning for mutants. If he had seen what the screen should have shown him, he would have seen an entire bus load of mutants. But something was manipulating his perceptions, disconnecting the message his eyes were supposed to be sending to his brain.

A lone, hooded, black clad young person, assigned male at birth but entirely gender fluid, sat in the back of the bus, back to the window, huddled to themselves. Their eyes rose up towards the officers. Glowing a bright purple, with the gentle aura with the silhouette of a butterfly surrounding their face. A telepath, using their prodigious psychic powers to protect their fellow mutants.

"Do you see any mutants?" The first officer asks.

The second officer responded, "No, I don't."

"Ok, you may all clear out. Quickly."

The mutants all stood up and exited the bus as fast as they possibly could. The telepath maintained a hold on all three, keeping them as docile as possible so their gene brethren could leave peacefully.

They snuck around the side of the bus, led by a single young man with sandy blond hair, towards the back of the terminal so they could escape into the din of the city. But a woman, dressed in a skin tight black bodysuit with "DOMAIN" labeled across the front. Her eyes were bionic and made to scan for mutants. She was a cyborg. A very specific kind of mutant hunting cyborg: A Prime Sentinel. A fusion of human biology and sentinel nanotechnology. And that sentinel half of her saw fifteen mutants attempting to escape.

"Mutant activity detected," She announced loudly, in a cold, robotic voice. She then called out to the group, "Stop mutants. Prepare yourselves for detainment and relocation."

The hooded telepath called out, in a dark, British voice, to her blond haired compatriot, "Alex! Prime!"

The young man turned towards the cyborg and revealed two armored gauntlets on his wrists. Unleashing his mutant power, waves of plasma streamed from the gauntlets, focused and hardened to produce a powerful concussive impact. It nearly knocked the human sentinel off her feet.

**XAVIER PROTOCOLS:**

**Alexander "Alex" Summers a.k.a. Havok. A now retired member of the X-Men. He possesses the ability to absorb various forms of cosmic radiation from his environment and metabolize them into his body. A gentle soul, Alex is constantly fighting against childhood trauma as well as his inability to get out of his brother's shadow.**

"Stop resisting, mutants." She held up her hand and a powerful blast of energy darted towards the group.

The telepath quickly darted across the way, manifesting a powerful shield made entirely from raw, psionic energy, which absorbed the entirety of the blast. Dissipating the shield, they then manifested their specialty weapon: a long katana. Rushing towards the sentinel, they swished and swiped but the cyborg was too quick. Thankfully, they were quicker.

**XAVIER PROTOCOLS:**

**Psylocke: The X-Man formerly known as Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock. A powerful telepath now possessing the ability to focus their psychic powers to manifest weapons made from raw psionic energy, though this severely limits their telepathy in the process. Now inhabiting the body of a young man in his later teens, their personalities and memories fused to the point where "Betsy" no longer knows where she starts and he ends, instead just allowing the two to mesh.**

Psylocke then sent a directive to her other cohort. "Toad, paddle ball!"

A man with green skin covered almost head to toe in ragged clothing bounces high into the air, simultaneously unleashing a massive tongue which wraps itself around the neck of the bio-sentinel. He pulls her up into the air while also slamming himself down into her, sending them both crashing into the ground leaving her in a crater as he backflips high into the air off of her, attaching himself to a nearby lamppost.

**XAVIER PROTOCOLS:**

**Mortimer Toynbee a.k.a. Toad: once a devoted servant of the X-Men's greatest nemesis, Magneto, now a freedom fighter working hard to save his fellow mutants. Born with an obvious mutation, he has a toad-like physiology, granting him incredible leg strength which in turn grants him the ability to leap high into the air, he has peak reflexes, an incredibly long, incredibly strong, prehensile tongue, and he secretes a mucus that paralyzes his victims as well as adheres to anything it touches, which makes him able to stick to solid surfaces. Toad has an incredible inferiority complex but also has a significant amount of intelligence and bravery that he has yet to fully embrace but is slowly getting to in these troubled times.**

The cyborg quickly launched herself into the air, her feet rocket jets. She aims her laser fists straight at the two mutants on the ground, but Toad quickly spat some adhesive mucous on them, causing the energy to explode back into her arms, obliterating them. A mixture of wires and blood sprayed everywhere. But that didn't deter the cyborg. She simply began using her optic lasers to blast at the renegade mutants.

Psylocke immediately began trying to draw her father. "I got this, Alex, get them out of here!" They flipped while throwing psionic darts up at the armless robo-human while Alex began trying to escort the wayward mutants away from the battle.

The bio-sentinel noticed this though and began flying towards the weaker and scared gene fugitives. Psylocke wouldn't allow this though and conjured a whip to lasso at her rocket foot. Toad responded in turn by grabbing her neck with his tongue. The Prime Sentinel was imobile and desperately trying to fly away.

Suddenly, the sentinel was bombarded by a bunch of car parts. Psylocke became distracted by the sight of one of their mutant charges using his telekinesis to try and help the fight. As a result, their grip on their whip became loose and it dissipated, giving the sentinel enough leeway to turn around and fire optic blasts at Toad. He quickly bounced out of the way and attempted to run to the mutant child quickly. But it was too late, the sentinel turned her sights towards the young teen and opened fire. He was obliterated in seconds.

Havok responded by unleashing the totality of his stored energy at the sentinel, unable to withstand the force, she began to malfunction and fell to the ground. Psylocke approached the half-dead creature and sliced its head off with their blade.

Knowing the Purifiers weren't too far away, Psylocke rallied the group, not allowing them the opportunity to mourn. "Let's go! We need to get out of here."

Seeing the mutant-hunters exit the terminal towards them, Psylocke conjured another whip, lassoed the closest support beam for the roof of the door overhang, quickly pulling at it until the entire thing fell down on top of the mutant hunters, crushing them.

The group ran until they found their final checkpoint: a manhole cover deep in the alleyways of Manhattan. Psylocke attempted to lift it with their telekinesis, but to no avail.

"It's ok," Alex said, encouragingly, before lifting the cover with little to no effort.

Toad jumped down first to see if the coast was clear. "All clear!" He shouted up from the bottom.

"Okay, everyone in," Psylocke instructed.

After everyone had gone down into the sewers, Alex and Psylocke held back. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked.

"No. I'm not," Psylocke answered honestly. "We lost someone."

"We're losing people everyday. Focus on the ones we can save instead of the ones we can't."

Psylocke's eyes welled with tears as they looked deep into Alex's deep blue eyes. And they peered deep into his soul. They didn't need telepathy to feel his emotions, to know what he was thinking. And they kissed him. It was short, and sweet, but conveyed in the moment all the love the other needed.

Psylocke bounded down into sewers, with Alex quickly following after, closing the lid behind him.

With nothing but a few flashlights, the group made their way into the sewers. Eventually they were met by a mutant with pale skin and yellow eyes.

Psylocke approached him, "Caliban."

"Psylocke-Friend. Caliban is happy to see you again," He responded in a slow, somber voice.

**XAVIER PROTOCOLS:**

**Caliban: a founding member of the Morlocks with pale white skin and yellow eyes. Possesses the ability to sense mutants as well as their powers, as well as the power to absorb the fear and negative emotions of others in his vicinity to briefly supplement his strength before releasing it back into his environment, causing those around him to be overcome with fear, anger or depression. A simple minded pacifist who only uses the full force of his power when those he cares about are threatened.**

"Do you bring more friends for the Morlocks to protect?"

"Yes, we were told there was room."

"There will always be room for lost mutants in the Morlocks' sanctuary."

"Thank you Caliban."

Caliban escorted the group to the Morlocks' inner sanctum, a massive bomb shelter built during the height of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis. There, the former X-Men were confronted by an all-too familiar face.

"Hello again, X-Men," she said in a rough, time worn voice.

"Callisto," Psylocke responded with a slight eye roll. They hated it when Callisto referred to them as "X-Men" since neither had been a member of the group in years.

**XAVIER PROTOCOLS:**

**Callisto: the fiercely protective and secretive leader of the Morlocks. She possesses superhuman sensory perceptions which grant her intuitive battle senses and night vision among other outstanding powers. She refuses to address the circumstances of her life before becoming leader of the Morlocks, she shifts back and forth between being an enemy of the X-Men and an ally, now focusing all her energy on rescuing her people from the forces of DOMAIN.**

"How many this time?" Callisto asked.

"Twelve," Alex responded.

"There were thirteen…" Psylocke said, with a depressing tone.

Callisto looked down, briefly taking in the tragic news, before regaining her composure. "No use crying over spilled milk. Let's move on, shall we?" And with that, she walked off to provide assistance to the new Morlock refugees, getting them set up.

Psylocke watched as the mutants, young and old, as well as their families, reduced to refugees by proxy simply for wanting to protect their mutant loved ones, settled into makeshift homes made from discarded blankets, tarps turned into tents, and stolen plush toys made into pillows, sleeping on the cold, stone, wet sewer floor, knowing they had nowhere else to go.

Psylocke didn't want to get used to seeing this. They didn't want to get used to watching mutants die trying to protect themselves. They didn't want to get used to mutants sleeping on cold, sewer floors because it's the only place left for them to go. They hated it, but this was the reality for mutants in a country ruled by humans who want mutants dead. And Psylocke didn't want to get used to it.


End file.
